American Pit Bulls = Guard Dogs?

A lot of people wonder if American Pit Bulls make good guard dogs or not. There is a great deal of confusion about this because people confuse strenght, agility, the ability to be great fighters and never give up with beeing a good guard dog.

To analyze this we must first look at the primal instinct of different dog breeds.

Pit bulls have been bred to be human friendly and dog (or other animals such as bulls) aggressive. So it will be no surprise to me that they are not mentioned in the top section of the list of great guard dogs.

It´s not their main instinct.

However pitbulls have shown ability to learn a great variety of tasks including rescue, pet therapy, personal defense and beeing guard dogs.

Pitbulls excel at pretty much anything that they are taught.

It´s just that maybe you need to have more patience and get a professional trainer to specifically teach your pitbull how to become a good guard dog.

Some American pit bulls will be better than others.

To show you what I mean by having a basic instinct to do a task look at the following exemples.

Rottweilers or the Fila Brasileiro dogs have great guard instincts.

Pointers, Setters and Spaniels such as the Cocker or the Springer have hunting instincts.

You probably won´t have to teach your labrador how to retrieve or how to jump inside a lake or river because they will do it by themselves.

Again, instinct.

For guarding purposes Pitbulls have an advantage over some other breeds. You see the media is doing great work in saying that they are brutal killers so intruders are probably scared to test and see if a pit is up to the task.

Pointers, Setters and Spaniels such as the Cocker or the Springer have hunting instincts.

You probably won´t have to teach your labrador how to retrieve or how to jump inside a lake or river because they will do it by themselves.

Again, instinct.

For guarding purposes Pitbulls have an advantage over some other breeds. You see the media is doing great work in saying that they are brutal killers so intruders are probably scared to test and see if a pit is up to the task.

A typical pitbull sign

They´ll choose an easier target.

I personally know a guy who got 3 pitbulls in his yard after he had problems with burglars when away from home.